Dependably dumb

Conservatives can be depended upon to oppose wasteful government spending and to rein in the power of the courts. Except, that is, when they are the ones pushing for wasteful government spending and an expansion of the power of the courts. I'll explain what I mean.

Anti-abortion activists - who surely can't be called "liberal" - are going to court to try to stop the state from spending $450 million on stem cell research over the next ten years. Unless they can somehow claim that the state legislature has abdicated funding responsibilities and powers to the courts, then this is nothing less than an attempt to subvert the will of the people by the use of (they hope) activist judges.

Win or lose, their willingness to deny that they are a slim minority in New Jersey will cost the rest of us through court costs accumulated by the state.

The lawsuit contends the November ballot question approved over the summer by legislators and Gov. Jon S. Corzine is deceiving because it doesn't explain the borrowing would pay for human cloning or that the debt could be paid back with property taxes, which in New Jersey are America's highest.

But the lawsuit is misleading in itself. To read that, you'd think these stem cell scientists are ready to launch an entire generation of clones to - well, the reason is unclear. Maybe they'll vote pro-choice or something. What scientists will be able to do is conduct somatic cell nuclear transplantation - the process that would become cloning if the product were implanted and given birth after gestation. But no one is talking about bringing them to gestation - or even implanting them (to my knowledge).

Stem cells are harvested a few days after fertilization. That process would be impossible if implantation took place. There is no plan to implant fetuses and harvest body parts for nine full months as the hysterical wack-o plaintiff claims. None. In other words, the right-to-lifers are so busy hawking fear that they are far more misleading than anything the legislature has ever done.

As far as "debt being paid back with property taxes" - that's just moronic. The state doesn't collect property taxes - counties, municipalities, and school districts do. The reason New Jersey has an income tax is to make up for the disparities created by that system.

But the facts don't matter when you're on an ideologically blinding crusade. It doesn't matter that millions of people could get help from cures found through embryonic stem cell research. It doesn't matter that the strictest controls are placed on programs. It doesn't matter that the people who run such programs apparently have more ethical values than those attacking those programs.

Here is a picture of my twins at about forty-eight hours after sperm met egg:

Here they are a few months ago:

For those who would say that using embryonic stem cells are the same thing as killing a living baby, I'll challenge you to identify which two blastomeres are now living under my roof. If you can't do that, then there is a glaring hole in your argument.

Around the time we found out that my wife was pregnant, my grandma died after decades of battling Alzheimer's disease. I would be willing to sacrifice one or two of those globs of cells in the first picture to extend her life and her memory long enough to hold her great-grandsons. But there is no way I'd sacrifice either of the two in the bottom picture for that.

Those who oppose embryonic stem cells believe they are standing on principle, but it is a principle that has been shown to be faulty. It is perfectly fine to oppose something because you are ignorant of the facts and don't know better. It is another matter to look at the facts and say, "I refuse to believe that because I believe otherwise and nothing will make me re-examine my belief." That is binding one's self to ignorance willingly. In my book, that is making one's self dependably dumb.